Don’t believe video marketing is for you? Think again.

As technology evolves, marketing must evolve as well. Video is a powerful force in today’s media landscape. Every month YouTube receives more than 1 billion unique visitors, and the top channels average $23,000 in revenue.

However, most marketers believe that video marketing is hard, and many businesses fail to invest in video marketing for a number of reasons. Most envision a noisy Hollywood set with an expensive camera, famous cast, boom mics and a guy with a clapperboard shouting “Action!”. Thanks to the internet and the reduced cost of technology, almost any business can afford to create and broadcast video commercials to their intended audience.

Here we bust some common myths about video marketing:

1) Video marketing is expensive.

Think of video marketing as an investment and not as an expense. You can create a remarkable video on a limited budget by requesting family, friends and co-workers to star in it, instead of hiring professional actors. Additionally, the quality of smartphone cameras are now good enough to make compelling videos, further driving down the cost of production. You only need to consider simple things such as background and lighting. As a marketer your focus should remain largely on the information in the video.

2) Videos are all about the views.

To make a video go viral is impressive but your focus of video marketing shouldn’t only be on the number of views the video gets. The problem with viral videos is that you might not reach your target demographic. Instead of focusing on the number of views keep an eye on the comments, likes, shares and other engagement metrics after watching the video. If there is a lot of engagement, then you have succeeded.

3) Videos need to be short.

There is a misbelief that marketing videos shouldn’t be longer than a few minutes. Marketing videos are different from entertainment videos. The length depends on the type of content you want to introduce. Your video can be as long as it needs to be. Focus on making the video valuable, and engagement will follow.

4) YouTube is the only place for video marketing.

YouTube puts out some impressive metrics with 4 billion video views every day by 1 billion unique users . You should definitely use YouTube to market your videos but that does not mean it is the only video marketing tool available. Other platforms such as Vimeo and Wistia are primarily used for business and not for entertainment. An added benefit is that these platforms have fewer distractions and are better primed for serious marketing efforts.

Now that you know the benefits of video marketing, get out there, create your videos and watch success flow your way.